Remnants
by SwedishWhale
Summary: Lorne Springs is a small town, built around a main road in Georgia. Its sheriff, Eli Crawford, foresaw the coming storm and prepared Lorne for what was to come. But, as it turns out, the end of the world was only the beginning for Eli and the people of Lorne.


"We can't let any more of them in, Eli."

"Bullshit, there's plenty of space."

"Space, yeah, maybe we do. But supplies? Fuck no. We're stretched out thin as is, how are we gonna accommodate another 10 people? And once we let them in, there's gonna be another 20 who try to follow suit. And suddenly we're full to the brim with refugees from the cities, people who are only here to leech off our generosity."

Eli, a large man, imposing and muscled like a bull, took off his wide-brimmed hat and ran a hand through his sparse black hair. He exhaled loudly before replying, "Look, I get your concerns, Marty, I really do. But we can't start turning people away. It's not moral, it's not fair. We're Christians, goddamit."

Marty shifted in his seat and looked Eli in the eyes when he spoke, an angry stare that would've made most people flinch and look away, "It's not fair, is it? It's immoral? Come on, Eli, you know the Bible flew out the window along with all those folks who preferred a high dive from The Bank of America Plaza to getting carpet bombed by their own fucking government."

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't be good Samaritans, Marty. We can't just throw out God's amendments like dirty laundry at the first sight of a problem. We have a duty, no, a moral obligation to help those in need. Even if you choose not to believe in Him, you still have to believe in the fundamental truths that've governed our world since the beginning of Western civilization."

The door to the Sheriff's office opened abruptly. An elderly woman came in, carrying a wooden tray with coffee. She approached the two men sitting at the desk and put a cup in front of each of them. She spoke in a sugary monotone, "Not to alarm you boys, but another group just arrived at the western blockade. They say they're simply passing through, but Chloe is giving y'all the last word."

Marty started to say something, but Eli interjected, "I'll be down there in a few minutes, thank you Rose."

Rose hobbled out of the room and closed the door behind. Marty tsk-tsked, "Why the hell do you need to do this every time?"

Eli glared at him angrily, "Should I surrender to apathy like you? Everyone deserves to be heard, and, if all they really want is to pass through our town and continue down the route, who are we to stop them, Marty?" The large man stood up and made for the door, but turned around just before leaving, "I don't want you spreading your negativity around town, Marty. I'd very much appreciate it if you kept your thoughts to yourself for now. I'm sure you know as well as I do that panic would be a fearsome foe to face, second only to the Zeds."

The other man laughed in his face, "Fancy way of saying you'll lock my ass up if I don't keep my mouth shut. But alright, Stalin, you don't need to worry. I'll do as advised, but that's a slippery slope you're going down."

Eli's face became a fiery sheen of red. Had the door handle been a human hand, it would've been fit to snap in half. In the end, he regained his composure and left the room without another word, leaving Marty alone with his cup of steaming coffee.

Sheriff Eli Crawford man made his way toward the western side of town. Lorne Springs was a small town, home to about 260 permanent residents before the dead came knocking down their doors. At first, the apocalypse was a distant thing to the people of Lorne – reports of looting in India, protests in China's countryside. Eli himself thought those were the rumblings of a revolution, of a reckoning of sorts. _This is it,_ he'd say to himself every time CNN discussed the news of yet another violent demonstration in this Asian country or that African cesspool, oddly without ever showing pictures or videos of what was happening, _the damned are crying out for help and taking up arms against their oppressor, the Lord'll sure help these poor souls, won't he?_ Months passed, and the Lord never came. But the reports stopped, as did the news' coverage of what was happening around the world. Suddenly, there was no information about China, or India, or South Africa. Nothing of Russia, the Korean peninsula, Israel. Slowly, foreign news became a rarity. It was as if the world outside of America had stopped existing. That was when Eli knew he had to start preparing Lorne for whatever was approaching.

He reached the western blockade in less than 10 minutes. There was a crowd gathered at the foot of the 15 foot wall raised in the middle of the road that Lorne Springs was built around. Eli climbed the stairs to its top.

"Come on, lady, we just wanna pass through. We're not gonna rob you or nothing," a man on the other side of the wall yelled up.

Chloe only looked at him, sizing him and his companions up. She didn't notice Eli immediately. He stood next to her for a while and listened.

The stranger, who'd been sticking his head out of the front window of his RV, opened the door and stepped out. He was short and stout and wore a sleeveless shirt, covered in red stains. His voice was booming, "Hey, why are you just sitting there? We've been waiting out here for, what, twenty damn minutes or something. Ain't you gonna –"

Chloe interrupted him, "I've been waiting for your friends to step out of the damn RV but you seem too fucking dumb to realize you're not going anywhere until we're sure you're not a threat. Now, will your friends come out?"

The man grunted and went back in, disappearing behind the curtain separating the driver's seat from the living quarters.

Eli whispered to Chloe, "So, what's the verdict here?"

Chloe looked at him angrily, "That's what I called you for, wasn't it? You're the one who insists on letting damn near everyone in."

Eli replied calmly, not taking note of her usual aggressive demeanor, "Let's wait for them to step out before judging, then."

The driver, who looked like a bearded wine keg, came out of the RV again, this time followed by some four others – three women and a kid, teenager by the look of him. The man looked up at Eli and Chloe, "Well? This is all of us – my son, my wife, my sister and my niece. Do we look like a fucking threat to you people?"

Chloe replied with a bored look on her face, "What, do you think we were born yesterday? There's plenty of room in that car for more people." She looked behind her and gestured at a few people in the crowd. They opened the gate slightly and slid out through the narrow gap.

The keg huffed in frustration when he saw three armed men approaching. Eli went down and joined them. They searched the family's RV thoroughly, but found nothing of interest – it was a mess of dirty clothes, empty cans and wrappings scattered over the floor.

Eli walked up to the man, "Well, sir, seems like everything's in order."

He turned toward Chloe and shouted, "Tell the boys to open her up and let the people through." But Chloe didn't answer. She didn't so much as look at him. She stared into the distance behind him. Eli heard the distant rumble of a large number of cars. He turned back around and saw it – a convoy, no more than a few miles away from the entrance to Lorne. At its forefront was what looked to be a wrecker, painted in the colors of the American flag.

"Get behind the wall, everyone," he looked at the family that'd just arrived and gestured at them to follow him. The women complied, as did the kid, but the father wouldn't budge, "What about my RV? You need to move these cars, they're blocking the. I can't drive through them."

Mark, one of those who'd searched the van with Eli, grumbled, "That's the point, ain't it obvious?"

The rest of them were already at the wall. The convoy approached fast, like a freight train on a straight track.

Chloe was shouting at them to hurry up, but the women were busy coaxing their companion to come with them. He complained in a childish way, explaining how important the RV was to him and how long he'd had it for. Eli shouted at them at the top of his lungs. His men were already behind the wall. The only ones left were himself and the arguing family. He knew a convoy with a wrecker in the vanguard couldn't mean anything good for them, and he acted – Eli ran over to the stout man and, while still running, swung at him with his baton. He knocked him out with a single blow, to the dismay of the rest of his family. He yelled at them to get inside Lorne and dragged the man's body after them.


End file.
